John Riegger turned 50 in June and had played in just four tournaments on the Champions Tour prior to his win at the Boeing Classic. The win gets him to $374,000 for his five starts.
Riegger has been a professional golfer since 1985 bouncing between the Web.com and the PGA Tour. In 224 career starts on the PGA Tour he had just three top-10 finishes, but earned over $2 million. His best finish on the PGA Tour was a T-6 in the 2006 John Deere Classic.
He made another $779,000 in 168 starts on the Web.com Tour with 21 top-10 finishes. He had two Web.com Tour wins, the 2007 LaSalle Bank Open and the 2010 Rex Hospital Open.
The Champions Tour has given the journeyman golfer another chance to find the winners circle and he is taking full advantage.
Riegger beat a quality field in Seattle. He posted 69-64-68 for the three rounds and held off John Cook and Fred Couples on Sunday for the win.
Cook and Couples both shot 66 on the final day, but were not able to catch Riegger who finished at 15-under par for the tournament.
Gene Sauers, John Huston, Tom Pernice Jr, Duffy Waldorf, Bobby Clampett, Tom Lehman and Bernhard Langer all finished five shots back tied for fourth at 10-under par.
Last week’s winner at the Dick’s Sporting Good Open, Bart Bryant had another strong week on the Champions Tour. He finished at eight-under par and T-12.
Charles Schwab Cup leader Kenny Perry maintained a 789 point lead in the season long race. His one-over par 73 on Sunday dropped him ten spots to finish T-20 for the Boeing Classic.
Langer’s high finish moved him ahead of David Frost into the second spot in the Charles Schwab Cup.
Fred Couples and Duffy Waldorf round out the top-5 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.
The Champions Tour moves to Calgary, Alberta, Canada for the Shaw Charity Classic.